Fiction
I think it was a work Christmas party when I noticed the first stars going dark. We were walking to a bar on the other side of town. Bowling was unbelievably boring so we thought a few cold ones might lift the spirits a bit. It was Christmas after all. It was a particularly clear night, and as we walked I looked up, laughing at some dumb joke only to witness the subtle dimming of that clear night sky. Just a touch. Of course as soon as I had a chance to even think about what id seen I was tugged away by Mary. She had a nasty habit of doing that at unfortunate times. She whispered into my ear about how Jane had pissed off Brian at dinner. This was important because they had a shift together the next day. Or something. Naturally I was distracted. And anyway, I had a shift tomorrow, so I could just distract Jane and Brian would just forget about it. I think this is why Mary told me specifically. I have a nasty habit of claiming other peoples ideas for myself. As if to complement our nasty habits, it was at this point that the man himself decided to cut off whatever conversation that Mary was trying to have with me. I wont lie to you, I was glad Mary pulled ahead at that point to reform with the group.
“Hey Luke so Jane's been pissing me off all night, she thinks I'm an idiot but i've just had a few”
I nodded, she was right but I didn't have the heart to break it to him right then and there. We were only halfway to the pub at this point.
“So anyway” He continued “We got that shift tomorrow, I'm hoping to write myself off tonight. You reckon you'll be sweet to cover for me if i'm suddenly sick tomorrow morning?”
“yeah mate, no worries” I replied
We continued down the street, shifting and strolling like a herd of sheep on the flock. And like the lonely shepherds must have done in the aeons before we roamed, I took a break from the action to gaze up towards the sky once more. Once more the stars were clear and bright, but lacking somehow. Staring at Orion, he lost a notch in his belt. I blinked, perhaps hoping that this would bring it back but it seemed in vain. The star had disappeared from the tapestry of night. This threw me out for a few seconds, and in those seconds we had reached the pub. We entered, drank, played pool and left. Standard stuff I know, but at that point were were a bit too messed up to just go home. Brian had brought with him a spliff, as he usually does, and let a few of us in on it for the night. I was thankful. See, while we were playing pool I'd teamed up with Jane. We always had a bit of chemistry. The kind of chemistry that normally goes unsaid until everyone gets a bit looser than usual. Okay we were flirting what do you want from me. We were having a good time most of the night, we even shared a smoke later on before we left. The smoker's at the pub was unusually empty for a Wednesday night and we got to talking but as we spoke I became distracted again by the dimming night sky, Id say at that point a good twenty percent of the stars had dissapeared. Jane didn't notice. She was telling me about her exceptionally cute dog and who much she liked doing coke. Ive never really been into either but I nodded and smiled and remembered to not be embarrassed while talking about drugs. We left the pub, lost a few and were left then with just the people I mentioned earlier. The young ones who didn't really care what time we went to sleep. As long as we had a nice time getting there. It was late so we stopped at the seven eleven, well they did, I stood outside and smoked on the bum's milk crate which he conveniently left for me earlier that day. It wasn't a long stop, but it was long enough to witness the dampening of two more stars. The sky grew darker with each minute that passed, and by the time we reached the park the sky was awfully dark indeed. We lay on the grass and chatted as we smoked, Brian said something funny but I don't remember what. We all stared up that night at different points but even as I saw the lights of thousands of worlds disappearing none of my companions noticed. Brian's smile was fixed on me, Marys scowl was fixed on him, Janes misty eyes drifted between us all but mine were more or less fixed on the heavens. Brian left, then Marys uber arrived and Jane and I were left there alone.
I couldn't look away, the tide moved quick now. Three or four were disappearing seemingly at once all across the sky. I think Jane turned to kiss me but I blurted before her lips made contact.
“The stars are going out”
“I know” she replied groggily, “it happens all the time” “No seriously, look”
She did, and sure enough I wasn't the only one to see this odd display. I heard a gasp and then I felt her hand on mine.
“What the fuck is happening up there?”
“I dont know, but i've been seeing it all night. I didn't know whether to say anything. It seems like something that everyone would just notice but noone did. I think, there's nothing we can do right?”
“Nothing I can think of” she whispered
“Me neither”
We stayed there all night, shaken but not cold. That could have been the smoke. But so could the stars I figured. The sun did rise the next day, and somehow the stars returned. The world continued turning and we had an easy walk to work the next day. I'd like to tell you what it meant. I'd like to know myself. But that night was pretty standard besides that one little hiccough. I think its best if I just let you know it happened. Even if it doesn't change your mind about anything. It was as if, it didn't even matter.
His hand slipped when his father made the announcement at dinner that night. Though not much of that spoonful made it into his mouth, there was a lot to swallow in the words of his father.
“We’re going to the beach?” He smiled
“If what your father says is true James then yes, tomorrow we head out” Replied his mother
Though he was only 10, a hard outback life had matured him to a far greater extent. He understood completely. His father explained the predicament to the family. On the way home after work, he went in to fill up the petrol tank. He filled it half way expecting to be paying premium price, which the day before was a dollar fifty. Looking up at the meter, he saw that both the volume meter and price meter were identical. Must have been a glitch in the system. With family finances in mind, he made his way inside and waited in line. Just before getting to the front, he looked out at the price sign.
“One cent a litre?”
Questioning the cashier, he found the price to be correct. A new emerging Trans National Corporation had discovered a new patented way of converting bio-mass into fuel, which has similar combustive properties to petrol. Similar enough that it can be used as a perfect substitute.
“We just haven’t changed the signs yet.” Said the cashier “We’ll still be offering regular petrol but this stuff is a whole lot cheaper. Unless everyone suddenly stops using it then this’ll soon be the biggest thing since sliced bread.”
And it soon was. Driving through the town later on the way towards Sydney, they saw a huge line of cars outside the petrol station. The sun was beating down hard on roughly half of the town’s population as well, lining the foot path carrying containers ranging from Tupperware boxes to Jerri-cans. Living in Broken Hill meant that they had to cut a lot of costs. And since fuel sources -and people- were scarce for kilometres surrounding, it used to cost hundreds of dollars to travel anywhere except to and from the town.
Though the trip would take days, it was worth it for the Gores to get some time off and spend some time together. As they drove, they sang and slept and throughout the journey they heard more and more about the impact of this fuel boom. The radio blared reports of economic success, power plants being theorised and whole sections of university research centers dedicated to experimenting on the product that this strange new company supplied them with. Despite much public support, there was still that question. What exactly was the patent? The question fell unnoticed and frankly unimportant to the millions of people who were heavily affected. No longer was the most expensive item that someone owned their motor vehicle. The fuel was clean and versatile. It did not damage the machinery, nor was it the cause of any un-wanted mechanical failures. The Gores were not surprised to hear of other families that had the same idea. Many others were using this cheap fuel to travel, as well as general thrifty use. Excitement built and after two days the trip towards the coast was over. They had arrived in Sydney.
The streets as well as the beach was packed full of people. The same burning heat complimented the warm water of the ocean although something seemed off now. There were not only many tourists about but also many protesters. One man had signs reading ‘500 workers dead for your driving pleasure!’ and ‘New, fast burning fuel. As well as the atmosphere’ According to them, this companies track record showed them to be inhumane and environmentally toxic.
“What will be your choice Australia?” one screamed. “Will you take your happiness served with a side of environmental disaster?”
“There’ll always be lunatics aye honey” James’ father spoke with a quiver in his voice.
Looking out at the beach they could see it was saturated with people. Each one jumping in and tossing up the formerly clear water into some kind of macerated mess of bubbles. At the sight of this the Gores decided to go around the head to one which was hopefully less torn up. The next beach over looked beautiful. An audible squeal broke James’ silence. Bursting from his mother’s grip, he ran toward the beach. Dived in and lay back. It was the most wonderful experience of his life. Floating numb in the clear cool water, he did not notice until it was too late. At first something brushed at his feet. Must have been seaweed or something. Then something brushed at his hand. Surely that was some kind of ocean debris, nothing to worry about. Looking back at his parents they were beckoning him with waves and cries. Confusion tread water with him in the stupefying comfort of the ocean. His hand now grabbed horror and stared at it straight in its rotting, fishy eyes.
The message came through early Sunday morning. So it took till about breakfast for us Americans to get scared. It seemed the sci-fi novels and movies were right, there was intelligent life outside of the human species. And they were contacting humanity at 1 o’clock. In a break from the usual first contact tropes of Hollywood, they spoke not to us the citizens of the USA. It seemed in fact they were speaking - by our judgement of time zones - to the citizens of North Korea.
The message lasted 4 hours, contacting the citizens of the earth in all its languages. The message also included 2 hours of electronic sounding clicking as a break between each language. We waited for the English message –not the American dialect to our frustration– and the world listened intently.
It began by stating the fact that the aliens come in peace, from a solar system 400 light-years away and represent a large, intergalactic empire who monitor all life forms in the known universe. Documenting each organism’s, conception, growth, rise to sentience and finally, their entry into a Type One civilisation. They explained that Type One is a term that is used to describe the level of energy consumption that a civilisation can achieve, type one is marked with the ability to properly reach light speed travel. Such an achievement relies on the full conversion of matter to energy.
They wished to inform everyone that a group of us earthlings were only a week - in earths lunar calenders - away from achieving this ‘type one’ status. And that at the end of the week they would arrive with the mother ship to introduce every member of the successful earthlings to witness the ceremony of initiation into their empire. And that the leader of said earthlings would sit the council to discuss the future of the solar system and the galaxy as a whole.
Needless to say everyone was shocked. Had North Korea developed light speed capability without us knowing? Could we take it from them and enter the mother ship ourselves? Within a day all the countries of the world were pointing fingers. We contacted allies and enemies alike to see if they were the ones who had developed this advanced technology, secretly away from the prying eyes of the world. As per usual, North Korea refused to respond. Hoaxes ran abound and when one former CIA agent said it was America that had the futuristic capability, nobody believed the white house when they said it wasn’t true. Tensions grew quickly within the first 2 days. On one afternoon a Chinese sabotage group were caught trying to blow up a US army base in Nevada, and so the war began.
The war came quick, in 4 days of horrid bloodshed great cities and even some countries were reduced to rubble. All this over simple whispers of seemingly impossible technology, and jealousy from friends. All of them aspiring to be the ones in that mother ship at the end of the week. Despite the UN’s best efforts and to no avail, at the end of those 7 days 500 million people had been killed in battle and countless were wounded. Desperate for success, it all reached a climax on the Saturday of that week. The USA in a last day push, invaded their original suspect, the only country so far not to have uttered a word in regards to the conflict. They found nothing of the fabled technology. Just hardship and ruin. Despite the failure of the mission, it seemed that on that bay where the Sunday Message was loudest. The site where the mother ship descended had become the place we learned the bitter truth. It wasn’t, in fact the People’s Republic of North Korea that had reached type one status. It wasn’t the Americans, nor the Japanese or the Germans. It wasn’t New Zealand or India. Neither was it any African states, or Russia. It was not in fact any country known to man that became the new emigrates into this intergalactic empire. It was a species of dolphin, endemic to Korea that was rising from the bay, slowly ascending towards the mother ship.